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Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Colloidal Silver

Shiny happy peopleIf you're still suffering from winter colds or flu, a dose of silver could be worth its weight in gold. Michele Kirsch does some metal detecting Saturday March 29, 2003The GuardianWe are riffling through health food shops and the internet, and seeking the advice of complementary practitioners, to find something that will cure mild infections or boost our immunity. Top of the alternative antibiotic and antiviral league is echinacea. But now another anti-infection supplement is all over the web like a rash: colloidal silver. According to Ayurvedic practitioner Nish Joshi of the Joshi Clinic in London, Sean Bean, the Sugababes and Ralph Fiennes have all taken it to ward off the lurgies, while Jenny Seagrove recently said she uses it because it "helps the system release bacteria".Colloidal silver is an odourless, tasteless solution that can be taken internally by the teaspoon, sprayed into the throat, dropped into the nose or ears, and applied topically. One of the more common ways of making it is by putting silver wires into pure distilled water and adding some voltage, in a Frankenstein-like fashion, so that submicroscopic particles of silver become suspended in the water. Sucking on a silver spoon won't do the trick.Advocates of the silver solution point out that it was a mainstay of conventional medicine, known for its antibacterial action, before the invention of antibiotics. Drops of silver medicine were used by doctors to fight all kinds of infections. A study in The Lancet in 1912 reported silver's antibacterial efficacy, but the scientific literature on its safety and benefits has since then been misinterpreted, exaggerated or even made up. In in vitro tests, there is evidence that silver has good anti-microbial (germ-fighting) effects but, as yet, there are no double-blind, placebo-controlled trials in humans.